Administrivia

These tasks are to be done prior to the start of observing runs each month:

Launch VNC desktops.

Remote Startup Procedure from home

The procedure for launching VNC desktops from home requires previous installation of the Keck remote observing software. Once the software has been installed:

1. Open a terminal on your local computer.
2. Navigate to the directory where the remote observing software was installed.
3. Launch VNCs with the following command:

   ./start_keck_viewers deimosN

Waimea Startup Procedure

1. Log in to primary seat.
   1. User: user
   2. Password: See your Staff Astronomer
2. Launch primary VNC desktops.
   1. Open a terminal
   2. Type: start_all_vnc.sh deimos7 (assuming that your assigned account for the night is deimos7.)

Check conking (not tested after Linux upgrade yet)

• Log into keanahaki as user deimos.
• run conk-check deimos
• Verify that DEIMOS numbered accounts to be used during the next run have been conk-ed within the last 21 days.
• If accounts require conking, manually initiate conking log into keanahaki as deimos and run the following command:

  autoconk -f -m m -M M

  where m is the first account number to conk and M is the last.

Check disk speed

Log into polo (deimosserver) as any DEIMOS numbered account. Check the speed of the disks using the command:

run_test_disk_io_speed

Check the logfile in /s/sdata1004/logs/test_disk_io_speed.log and see whether current I/O speed is in line with previous values. Typical disk I/O time before the upgrade of polo to Linux was 2.1sec. Typical I/O time after the upgrade is 0.7sec if the script is run on polo and nearly 3sec if the script is run on vm-deimos. This test is completely independent of the DEIMOS software and simply tests the time required to write data to disk.

Check image acquisition sequence speed

Start up the DEIMOS software and setup the engineering program ID and observer:

• Right click in the VNC background to access the DEIMOS menu.
• Select DEIMOS Control Menu → Start All DEIMOS GUIs. Wait for a about 2 minutes for all the GUIs to pop up and auto-arrange
• Input program ID.
  On the Program information area of the DEIMOS instrument control GUI, click on the Program ID button, input the program ID ENG on the text box and hit the Apply button.
• Input observer list.
  On the Program information area of the DEIMOS instrument control GUI, click on the Observer button, input the observer Engineering on the text box and hit the Apply button.

Log into polo (deimosserver) as any DEIMOS numbered account. Check the speed of the image acquisition sequence by running the command:

run_test_goi_time

For each data disk, this will acquire 1 direct-mode bias image with both amplifiers and compute the time to write to disk. Check the resulting output in /sdata1004/logs/test_goi_time.log, which looks like this:

# date		        disk	        n       erase   wcrate  wdisk   total
# ----                  ----            -       -----   ------  -----   -----
2021-May-04 22:03       /sdata1004      1       7.82    30.41   0.15    43.54  
2021-May-04 22:04       /sdata1005      1       7.82    30.11   0.16    43.76  
  

Compare the time required to complete various phases to what it took in the past. If problems are seen, check software and hardware:

• unusually long erase time may indicate a problem with the CCD controller or deiccd keyword library
• unusually long wcrate time may indicate a problem with the CCD controller
• unusually long wdisk time could be a problem with the gathering of keywords or the write_image daemons
• abnormally long total time could indicate a problem with lickserv2

Daytime Checkout

These procedures are run during the day to check whether key components of the instrument are working as expected.

Check safety

Phone the summit and verify that DEIMOS is available for moving motors and rotating.

Start a VNC session

See instructions above

Start software

• Right click in the VNC background to access the DEIMOS menu.
• Select DEIMOS Control Menu → Start All DEIMOS GUIs

If you have not done it already, input program and observer name

• Input program ID.
  On the Program information area of the DEIMOS instrument control GUI, click on the Program ID button, input the program ID ENG on the text box and hit the Apply button.
• Input observer list.
  On the Program information area of the DEIMOS instrument control GUI, click on the Observer button, input the observer Engineering on the text box and hit the Apply button.

Home stages and apply default configuration

• Click on the Details... button on the Init/Stow area of the DEIMOS control GUI to open the DEIMOS initialization control GUI.
• On the initialization control GUI, left-click on the Recalibrate instrument to activate that area, and then left-click on the Rcalibrate all button. Wait until all stage flags turn to white check marks on a green background, indicating that they have been initialized properly.
• Left-click on the Return to default label to activate the Return to default area and then click on the Apply default config button to send all stages to their nominal positions. Please wait for this step to complete, which may take a few minutes. When the system is reset to its default configuration, a message will be displayed on the text box of the intialization control GUI indicating GODEFAULT: Completed successfully.
• Close the intialization control GUI by clicking on the Close button.

Home rotator

• Ensure that the DEIMOS rotator is not halted. Check that the Rotator mode on the system overview of the DEIMOS instrument control GUI is Pos. If the rotator mode is not Pos, then click on the rotator Details... button on the DEIMOS instrument control GUI to bring up the rotator GUI. Left-click on the Manual mode label then select Rotator mode: → Pos.
• To home the rotator, bring up an xterm on any of the DEIMOS Linux hosts (polo, vm-deimos or roto) and run the command rotatcal. When prompted:

  ARE YOU SURE you want to home the DEIMOS rotator? (y/n) [n]:

  enter y and press Enter.
• After a few minutes, the rotator should home near ROTATVAL=+41.

Check CCD shutter

The shutter is cycled automatically when all DEIMOS GUIs are started, but this operation can also be done separately, by issuing the command:

 cycle_shutter -100

In a Linux hosts (polo, vm-deimos or roto) xterm as any DEIMOS numbered account. The shutter generally fails to open for several iterations if it has not recently been exercised. The script will run the shutter until it opens successfully up to a maximum of 100 times. If the last attempt succeeds, then the shutter should be ok.

Detector checkout

• As any DEIMOS numbered account in any of the DEIMOS Linux hosts, execute the script detector_checkout, which will:
  • Send the slitmask to the Open position.
  • Insert one of the filters already loaded in DEIMOS.
  • Insert one of the gratings already loaded in DEIMOS.
  • Set the grating tilt to a wavelength of 4000A.
  • Acquire a bias and an image with the the Ar lamp on in Direct mode.
  • Acquire a bias and an image with the Ar lamp on in Spectral mode.
  • Turn the Ar lamp off.
• Verify that the bias frames look good (~1000 ADU) and check that the images with the Ar lamp show all detector channels illuminated.

Adjust science CCD bias

See procedure to adjust the science CCD video offsets.

Check CCD parameters

See procedure to measure the science CCD gain and readout noise.

Check internal lamps

• As any DEIMOS numbered account at any of the DEIMOS Linux hosts, execute the script test_lamps, which will:
  • Insert any available longslit mask
  • Insert 1200G at 7800A plus OG550 filter
  • Configure CCD for spectroscopy
  • Acquire 1s exposures on each lamp after 30s warmup (180s for some lamps)
• Verify that you get light from each lamp by checking for a spectrum on the corresponding image.

Check FCS lamps

• As any DEIMOS numbered account at any DEIMOS Linux host, execute the script test_fcs_lamps, which will acquire one FCS image for each of the FCS lamps (Cu1, Cu2, LED) in zeroth order on slider 3.
• Check that the output images include one dot on each CCD.

Check dewar focus values

• As any DEIMOS numbered account at any DEIMOS Linux host, issue the command

  do_focusloop -a -c -s -r internal R

  to acquire a focus sequence in R.
• When this completes, use the DEIMOS Utilities → Analyze Focusloop option on the DEIMOS pulldown menu to analyze the results and derive a focus value.
• Type this value into the Focus box on the DEIMOS instrument control GUI.